Hi everybody, this time we have two experimental albums that push music to the extreme.
BOYD RICE AND FRANK TOVEY - EASY LISTENING FOR THE HARD OF HEARING
Boyd's next Mute project was an album in collaboration with Frank Tovey (Fad Gadget) auspiciously titled 'Easy Listening For The Hard Of Hearing'. The album had been recorded in 1981, after NON had supported Fad Gadget on an extensive European tour, but it took three and a half years for the two to agree upon the sleeve design! Made using a gas fire, water pipes and any furniture that happened to by lying around Blackwing studios as they made it as instruments, they fashioned a soundtrack on Boyd's tape recorder that was described by the NME as, "a tapalong collection of wit and invention." Easy Listening was released on Mute Records Ltd (STUMM 20) in 1984 and re-released on cd by Mute Records Ltd (CD STUMM 20) in 1996. This is the lp version.
Smegma's third album "Smell The Remains". As this Portland combo needs no introduction, I can say that this is an album full of tape collages, drones, rock , post-punk/punk, improvisation and experimental music, typical Smegma. Smell The Remains was released on Dom ( DOM V 77-13) in 1987. Pressed on blue vinyl and includes printed inner sleeve with photos, credits and Dom discography. Track listing on inner sleeve is missing the last five titles. These were later printed in Bananafish magazine issue 5. For Smegma's second album " Pigs For Lepers" take a trip to Mr. Mutant here . Hiboux Choux Genoux has posted the excellent Ju Suk Reet Meate solo album similar to Smegma' s first album here.
TRACKLISTING:
1. Potatoe War
2. Forest Fire In Your Left Elbow
3. One Moment
4. Credo Quia Absurdum Est
5. Hot Beeshead Hit The Wax
6. Pigface Chant
7. Roll Down Your Window
8. Beauty School
9. Can't Look Straight
10. Flashcard
11. Outro Is Intro
12. Alternate Take Of Mutant Baby
13. Grass Glob Ball War
The Bridge is a mix of dark electro-pop songs underlined by repetitious sound patterns and punctuated by appliance noises . This is really old-school electronica from the post-punk age like they do not make it anymore .
Robert Rental and Thomas Leer were clearly pioneers of the genre and this album shows their art at its best . It is remniscent of others such as Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle , but in more melodic and also more electronic. Very hypnotic and beautiful. This is the cd version of the Bridge from 1992 on The Grey Area Of Mute Records (Bridge 1cd) , The original lp was on Industrial Records (IR 0007) in 1979 .
TRACKLISTING :
1 Attack Decay
2 Monochrome Day's
3 Day Breaks, Night Heals
4 Connotations
5 Fade Away
6 Interferon
7 Six A.M.
8 The Hard Way in & The Easy Way Out
9 Perpetual
Hi Everybody.Sorry for the lack of updates in these last days but I've been very busy.
Anyway, this time here's some good rockabilly for you.The Boppin' Kids are an Italian band from Sicily and they've made two albums here collected in a single package.
Boppin' Kids became quite popular for a really good cover of Ed Cobb's Tainted Love.They mix rockabilly and psychobilly;I've had the luck to see them playing live for their 20 years reunion tour and they still rock.If you like energy and want to move your feet, this is the right sound for you. Have a good listen.
TRACKLISTING:
01 Fire in my Soul
02 Crazy Love
03 Don't You Make me Cry
04 Rebel Without a Cause
05 Something Else
06 Castle of Death
07 Tainted Love
08 Lonesome Train
09 Go Wild
10 In my Dreams
11 Love me Like a Stone
12 Little,Little Girl
13 Feel so Lonely
14 You Make me Smile
15 I Don't Know
16 You Don't Know
17 Do u Love me
18 This Love Story
19 She's a Rock'n'Rol Fanl
20 Horks
21 Invisible Life
22 Cry Little Woman
23 Baby Love me
Trees comprised only just of nerdy San Diego multi-instrumentalist Dane Conover, released only one album. However, it is the unsung masterpiece not only of its era, but also of its creator’s whole generation.Produced by Los Angeles rock legend Earle Mankey, Sleep Convention comes from a Space Age childhood immersed in the music of the Beach Boys where it was most relevant. Keeping with the times, Trees does it in a way that only the punk explosion could allow.
Working in a synth-pop style virtually unheard in the United States, Conover’s distinct voice earned him a deal with MCA and a bevy of videos produced by Kim Fowley at the time of MTV’s rise. Despite this, success never came his way. These infectious pop songs only crime is perhaps being too brilliant. While the sound in never inaccessible, at least for its time the lyrical themes are heavy enough to outdo even British contemporary Gary Numan. As the title would suggest, sleep is a major theme that works itself into almost every track, using both the connotations of dreaming and escapism. This kind of duality continues in the exploration of technology as a tool that can propel mankind into a bright future, but one that must be approached with great caution. Ever catchy and at times even sugar-coated, Sleep Convention carries a strong apocalyptic air - one approached calmly, yet of course with some fear. Through all of this, Conover maintains the uniquely American in his lyrics.
“Red Car” in particular defines the otherworldly tone of the album in its imagery of the Great American West juxtaposed with both the amazement in and danger of the atomic bomb. “Shock of the New” is the great lost anthem of the New Wave as Conover sings, “mock of the old becomes shock of the new” at a time when future shock was growing only quick enough to still notice it. The epic side two opener “11:00 AM” may literally ground the album’s world in time, but ultimately obliterates the concept not suitable for Conover’s dark, ethereal world. Following it is “Wildwood” the album’s finest, most mysteriously beautiful song which’s use of noise gives provides Sleep Convention with its most cinematically gorgeous vision. “Delta Sleep” Trees’ psychedelic tribute to the nocturnal experience. Even “No Stranger” flits lyrically between romantic and the dark surrealism of a supernatural thriller.
This is not to say that every track here is not a standout – each one can be let into your heart as readily as the one preceding it. This album will surely keep you hooked for even longer than you will expect upon first listen. Cleverly integrating new technology with more traditional instruments and classic songwriting, Conover beautifully melds the dark synth-pop of the era with the California pop that runs in his blood.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Come Back
02. Shock Of The New
03. Delta Sleep
04. No Stranger
05. Midnight In America
06. 11:00 AM
07. Wildwood
08. India
09. Gotta Moon
10. Red Car
If you like New Order you'll probably also like The Foxglove Hunt. They are definitely channeling Bernard Sumner and Co.; a couple of songs on this album sound like they were just lifted right off of Substance. As a big New Order fan, I'm fine with the imitation aspect of this CD.
Anyway, this is fun, feel-good music that will remind you of the mid 80s. The vocalist sounds a little like Joy Electric's vocalist, only not whiney. I found that interesting, because Ronnie Martin of Joy Electric is part of The Foxglove Hunt, but he isn't the vocalist.
TRACKLISTING:
1 A Concealed Weapon 03:42
2 Strength Early 03:46
3 Business Casual 02:44
4 The Life Highrise 04:44
5 The Mayflower Compact 02:22
6 It's Not Effective 04:01
7 That's Getting Personal 03:12
8 Love My Way 03:44
9 Don't I Know The Way 03:58
10 The Pure In Heart 04:21
Yazoo, was the combo made by Mr.Vince Clarke (after his departure from Depeche Mode) with Alison Moyet, Vince schoolmate.Vince Clarke started this project as a joke also because after leaving DM he didn't want to continue making music but then he let Daniel Miller listen to Only You and from that point it was a huge, even short success made by two albums ("Upstairs At Eric's" and "You And Me Both"). This is the only live recording available from Yazoo of that period and it comes from the BBC archives. I Think it does exist also the second night of the DOminion Thetare Show but the tracklist is the same. Vince Clarke it's in my opinion, a real genius and even after the 2008 Yazoo reunion I still enjoy listen to these precious gems. Enjoy.
TRACKLISTING:
1 - Situation
2 - Too Pieces
3 - Goodbye 70's
4 - Winter Kills
5 - Bad Connection
6 - Tuesday
7 - Bring Your Love Down
8 - Midnight
9 - Chinese Detectives
10 - In My Room
11 - Don't Go
12 - he Other Side Of Love
13 - Ode To Boy
14 - Only You
San Francisco's Our Daughters Wedding started playing in 1977 with bass, guitar and drums but in 1978 they quit. One year later they met in New York and decided to start all over again, this time using only rhythm machines and synthesizers. "We started playing at the Hurrah! club as supporting act to James Chance and Mi-Sex. At that time people did not like us and shouted 'where the fuck are the drums, why don't you use any guitars' and that kind of crap. But after a few years it became a fad, so it came as a surprise to us that it all of a sudden was okay to use synths" said a band member. They scored with the dance club hit "Lawnchairs" (1980 Design Records). Then they signed with EMI records and released the 5 song EP "Digital Cowboy" which featured a rerecording of "Lawnchairs", this time using real drums. In 1982 they released the LP "Moving Windows" but the band broke up not long after it's release.
Hi, here's a really hard to find version from an early Depeche Mode song taken frome their first Lp, "Speak & Spell".I'm talikng about "I Sometimes Wish I Was Dead", one of my favourite synthpop tunes of all time.This is a vinyl rip taken from a personal copy of a flexy disc appeared on the Felxy Pop Magazine of 1981.The song is recorded in a different version in comparison with the original.Download it because it really rocks!
Happy Halloween to everybody.Here's another french compilation full of minimal synth acts.This is the evidence theat the 80's french scene was pulsing and solid.There are several good tune sin this compilation so it worths a liste. Enjoy and post your comments!
